of Asia This year’s most powerful storm It made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, the weather agency said, killing at least four people Breaks off from China’s Hainan Island and the Philippines.
Super typhoon Yagi hits the island Districts of North Vietnam Around 1 p.m. (0600 GMT), it produced sustained winds of up to 160 km/h (99 mph) near its center, losing strength from its peak of 234 km/h (145 mph) in Hainan a day earlier. was
The government said that by 5pm the storm had killed four people and injured 78 people. At least a dozen others were lost at sea, according to state media.
Yagi had already claimed at least two lives in Hainan and 16 people in the PhilippinesIt was the first country to be hit, having formed in the east of the archipelago earlier in the week.
Vietnam’s coastal city of Haiphong, an industrial hub of 2 million people that hosts factories for foreign multinationals and local carmaker Winfast, was worst hit by winds of up to 90 km/h.
As the typhoon approached, the city experienced widespread power outages on Saturday, officials said, as did at least three other northern provinces.
In Hai Phong, strong winds smashed windows and waves as high as three meters crashed onto the shore, according to a Reuters witness.
Metal roof sheets were blown off, pictures and footage on local media showed. The government said thousands of trees had fallen and many houses had been damaged in northern Vietnam.
Earlier in Hainan, which has a population of more than 10 million, the storm toppled trees, flooded roads and cut power to more than 800,000 homes.
Vietnam evacuated more than 50,000 people from coastal towns and deployed 450,000 military personnel, the government said.
It suspended operations for several hours at four airports on Saturday, including Hanoi’s Noi Bai, the busiest in the north, which canceled more than 300 flights.
High schools were also closed in 12 northern provinces, including the capital Hanoi, which has a population of 8.5 million.
Authorities in the capital suspended public transport on buses and its two elevated metro lines on Saturday afternoon, state media reported. The Meteorological Agency has warned of the risk of heavy flooding in the city centre.
Hanoi resident Nguyen Manh Quan, 40, said: “The wind is so strong it can blow a person away,” while Dang Van Phuong, 40, also said: “I’ve never seen such a storm, you can’t drive. This wind.”
Scientists say typhoons are becoming stronger amid climate change, fueled by warmer oceans.
last week, Typhoon Shanshan struck southwestern JapanThe most powerful storm to hit the country in decades.
Yagi is named after the Japanese word for goat and the constellation Capricornus.
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